For
decades the site of the shooting of Colonel W C Falkner by R J
Thurmond in Ripley has been pointed out as
being in front of Renfrow's Cafe, believed to be the site
of Thurmonds office, at the northwest corner of the square.
A re-examination of the evidence indicates that this is
not correct. The actual site is somewhat more than
100 feet to the south, where R J Thurmond's office was
really located.

In1974,as
part of thefirstFaulknerandYoknapatawphaConference, I
participated in a field trip to the town of Ripley,
Mississippi, once the home of Colonel W C Falkner, Confederate
officer, railroad developer, novelist, politician, and local
legend. The “old Colonel” became the inspiration for his
great-grandson William Faulkner's character Colonel John Sartoris,
whose memory hauntedhis
mythical Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, beginning with the
first sentence of his first Yoknapatawpha novel, Sartoris:
“As usual, old man Falls had brought John Sartoris into the room
with him,...fetching, like an odor, like the clean dusty smell of
his faded overalls, the spirit of the dead man into that room
where the dead man's son sat and where the two of them, pauper and
banker, would sit for a half an hour in the company of him who had
passed beyond death and then returned.”

On the evening of November 5, 1889,
Falkner was shot by his former business associate R J Thurmond on
the square in Ripley. He died the following evening, and passed
beyond death into history and legend. The shooting would have its
parallel in the Yoknapatawpha stories with the shooting of Colonel
Sartoris by his former business associate, who was referred to as
B J Redmond in the novel, The Unvanquished.

Over the decades since my
visit two memories of Ripley remained with me, both connected with
the death of the old Colonel. One was of the monument that was
erected beside his grave in the Ripley cemetery, a larger than
life marble statue standing on top of a tall granite base. In the
novel Sartoris, a similar effigy of Colonel Sartoris stood
“on a stone
pedestal, in his frock coat and bareheaded....his carven eyes
gazing out across the valley where his railroad ran.”

The Falkner Monument, Ripley
Cemetery

My other memory was of the purported site where
Colonel Falkner was shot by Thurmond outside the latter's office.On the 1974 field trip,
we were told that Thurmond's office had stood on the site of what was then
Renfrow'sCafeonthenorthwestcornerofthesquare.[1]
This
identification continued to be made for decades until evidence
began to arise suggesting that it was not in fact the correct
site.

Renfrow's Cafe, 1937-2011

While researching the historical
layout of Ripley I discovered that the Thurmond office that had stood
on the Renfrow's
Cafe site had not been owned by R J Thurmond, but by his son,
attorney Charles Miller Thurmond.[2] I initially assumed that,
whatever the circumstances,R J Thurmond had used the building along with his son as
his office. Over a period of time though, it gradually dawned on
me that it was very improbable that R J T would have shared such
a small office with his son and his son's law partners. My
suspicions were confirmed when I was eventually able to identify
the site of R J Thurmond's office on that fatal day in November
1889 and it was not at the Renfrow site. It now appears that the
two offices had been confused in part because of the same
surname association andbecause
C M Thurmond's office was the better known of the two; it
continued to be known as the “Thurmond office,” or “Thurmond
house,” decades after his death.[3] The R J Thurmond office, on
the other hand, was used only briefly by R J T and was
subsequently forgotten.

C.M. Thurmond's office, 1881-1937Used by C M Thurmond for a law
office, 1882-1900. Misidentified in recent years as the office
of his father, R J Thurmond.

In determining the actual
location of the R J Thurmond office and of the shooting, I will
first review the pertinent information from the newspaper accounts
of the event. Theseaccountsreferredtotwolocations. One appeared
in the newspaper, the Memphis Avalanche, on or about
November 6, 1889.[4]It was signed by “J.
Brown,” evidently Joseph Brown of Ripley, a long time resident
and merchant whose aunt was married to R J Thurmond. Brown was
often involved in journalism in part throughhis brothers-in-law,
Walter and Pink Smith, who owned and published the Ripley
newspaper, the Southern Sentinel. Brown knew Ripley and
its people, so the facts of his account are fairly reliable.
Brown wrote that the shooting “occurred in front of [R J]
Thurmond's office.” Theother
account appeared in the newspaper, the Ripley Advertiser.
Although unsigned, it was almost certainly by
the editor, R FFord. Like Brown, Ford had lived in Ripley
for decades, so he too is a reliable witness. Ford wrote that “onthewestsideofthepublicsquare
… Col.FalknerwasstandingonthepavementinfrontofornearAlexander&Co.'sstore,whenMr.Thurmondmetupwithhim,andpointinghispistolatCol.Falkner'shead,fired....”[5]

The assertion
that the shooting was “in front of or near Alexander & Co.'s
store” might initially appear to contradict the claim that the
shooting occurred in front of R J Thurmond's office. However if
the Alexander & Co. store proved to be adjacent to
Thurmond's office, then there would be no contradiction; they
would in effect corroborate each other, as was indeed the case.
However, the problem of identifying the site of the shooting
came down to actually identifying the sites of the two
buildings, and by 2011, no one seemed to know where they had
been located. All that can be asserted from the accounts are
that the shooting was on the west side of the square, as Ford
noted.

After perusing
and abstracting all of the nineteenth century deeds and
newspapers for Ripley, I am now able to demonstrate where the
two buildings were located. The argument as presented is
strengthened by the fact that I wasn't attempting to merely
document the two buildings of concern, but was actually trying
to document all the buildings on the square. Through this means
I was able to not only identify the two of concern, but was able
to eliminate alternative possibilities. I will first identify
the building in which the firm Alexander & Co. was located
in November 1889.

Alexander&Co.

Theprimarypartnerinthefirm
of Alexander & Co. wasDr.EliMarionAlexander,[6] who had been in business in Ripley as early as
1856, initially in the drug store partnership of Cox &
Alexander. He left that partnership in 1858 [7] whilecontinuingtopracticemedicine.AftertheCivilWarhewasagainin
the drug business.About1870
along with Dr. John Y. Murry, hewasinthe
drug store partnership
of Murry&Alexander,
[8] whilesomewhatlaterhewasinthepartnership
of Alexander&Hunt
along with hisbrother-in-law,Dr.ENHunt.[9]About1874 Alexander leftthedrugbusinessandjoinedthepartnershipBell,Alexander&Co.whichwasvariouslylistedasadrygoodsstoreandageneralstore.[10]

By 1879 Alexander's businesswaslistedasAlexander&Co.
and under this name it operated until
July 1895,[11] when he wasstrickenwithparalysis[12]and retired frombusiness,sellingouttoJ.A.Norriss&CowhichcarriedanadvertisementinSeptemberannouncingthattheyhad “purchasedthestockofAlexander&Co.,onWestSide[ofthesquare].”[13]

Alexander&Co.
moveintothebrickWm.R.Colestorebuilding

Throughoutthe1880sand1890sAlexander&Co.werelocatedonthewestsideofthesquare.However,thefirmneverownedalot there,indicatingthattheyrentedthebuildingsused.Duringtheearly1880s
the location on the west side is unknown although theprocessofeliminationsuggeststhatitwas on Lot4Block17.[14]

Plat of part of Ripley
around the square. Lots are 49.5 x 99 feet.

InSeptember1883,thefirmgainedaccesstoamoredesirablestorehouse,
alsolocatedonthewestsideofthesquare.TheRipleyAdvertiserreportedthat “Alexander&CohavemovedintothebrickhouseonthewestsideofthepublicsquareformerlyoccupiedbyElliott&Co.,”
a building that was owned as rental property by R J
Thurmond.[15]Notethatthebuildingwasidentifiedasbeingmadeofbrick.TherewasonlyonebrickstorehouseinexistenceinRipleyduringthe1880s,abuildingformerlyownedandoccupiedbythemerchantWm.R.Cole.Thefollowingyear,anewspaper item
indicated that AlexanderandCo. werelocatedin “theoldColebuilding,westsideofsquare.”[16]
One
month before the shooting of Colonel Falkner, Alexander &
Co. were still advertising that they were located in “theColeoldstand,westsideofthesquare.”[17]
There
is no indication that the firm ever moved before they sold out
to J A Norriss & Co. in 1895.

WilliamR.ColeStoreBuilding

Having identified that Alexander
& Co. were located at the time of the shooting in the old Cole
store building, the origin and location of the building will be
examined. WilliamR.Cole
[18]wasoneofthemostsuccessfulofRipley'smerchantsduringthemid-19thcentury.Hewasinbusiness
there asearlyas1849.
After the Civil War his business became known as Wm. R. Cole
& Son, which included his son William Douglas Cole.[19]HisantebellumhomeonJacksonStreetinRipleystillstands,whereitisbetterknownfor its
association with later owner and occupant R J Thurmond.

The
brickstorewasnotthefirststorebuildingthat later hadownedand used in Ripley.
He firstpurchasedastorebuildingin1849onthesouthhalfofLot5Block17.[20] Forthemostpartthisisthesamepropertythathisbrickstorewaslaterlocatedon,exceptforthefactthatthebrickstoreextendedafewfeetonto the adjacent Lot8,propertythatColedidnotown
until 1856.Thestorethathepurchasedin1849wasprobablythetwo-storyframestorethathadbeenconstructedforthepartnershipofAyres,Edgerton&Co. in
about1839.[21]Thisstoreprobablyburnedon 5
February 1856 in
a conflagration that destroyed severalstoresandoffices.[22]

Shortly after the 1856fire,ColepurchasedthenorthernportionoftheadjacentLot8 Block 17
where OrlandoDavis'slawofficehadbeenlocated before the
fire.[23] Colethenpresumablybuiltanotherstore,which was alsoapparentlyburnedduringtheCivilWar along with allthebusinesses
on the square in conflagrations setbyUniontroopson23March1863and
on 8/9July1864.[24]Soon after the end of
the war, he presumably built the brick store under discussion, that is in
about late1865
--1866. Because ColeownedboththesouthhalfofLot5andtheadjacentnorthernportionofLot8,
he was able toconstructthebrickbuildingstraddlingthelinebetweenthetwolots.

Subsequentdeedrecordsduringtheearlytwentiethcenturycontinuedtodescribethispropertyasthe “brickbuildingknownastheBillColestore”
andvariants.[26] Atanundeterminedtime—probablybetweentheworldwars—theoldfacadewasremovedandanewone
was constructed ofpressed
brick
with striated surfaces.However,todayitisveryeasytoseewherethenewfacadejoinstotheolder,handmadebricksthatconstitutethesidewallsofthebuilding.
After surveying all the evidence, both archival (deeds and maps)
and extant architectural remains, it is now clear that the brick
walls of the Cole store building, used by Alexander & Co. in
1889, still stands and are part of the present business,
Creative Awning and Sign.Exceptfor
the facade,whichisatwentiethcenturyreplacement,thebrickwallsaretheoldestcomponentsofcommercialarchitectureontheRipleypublicsquare.Bymymeasurementthe
facade isabout21feetwide(north-south).Whilemost(18feet)ofthisisonthesouthernhalfofLot5Block17,itdoesextendthreefeetoverontothenorthernedgeoftheadjacentLot8B17.[27]This
building--theonlybrickstoreonthesquarein1889--stillstands
and
is the only commercial building remaining there from the time of
Colonel Falkner. It is
the building that editor R F Ford referred to as being at or
near the site of the shooting.

(on
left) Creative Awning and Sign, located in the
brick Cole building that was used by Alexander
& Co., 1883-1895.
The door to its right is Smith's Barber
Shop.

(center and right) Details of the south wall of
Creative Awning and Sign. Note that
the more recent brick facade on the left side of
each photo has been added onto the earlier masonry
on the
right with a distinctive seam between the two
masonry units.

R JThurmond'sOffice

Bytheearly1880sthereweretwocommercialbuildingsonLot5Block17onthewestsideofthepublicsquare.Onthesouthsidewasthebrickstore
rented by Alexander & Co. and formerlyownedbyWm.R.Cole.Onthenorthsidewasaframestorebuilding,andinbetweenthetwowasavacantspaceabout15feetwide,toonarrow in which to
erect astorebuilding.TheofficethatwasusedbyR JThurmondinNovember1889wouldbebuiltinthisvacantspace.

Inearly1881,
Ripley postmaster E WSimpson
maintainedthepostofficeintheframestorebuildingonthenorthsideofLot5.[28]
However,onMarch4,1881,JamesA.Garfieldwasinauguratedaspresident.Aspostmaster-shipsweregivenouttopoliticalsupportersaspartofthespoilssystem,Simpsonwasremovedfromoffice,andanewpostmasterinstalled.[29]PoliticalchangeseventuallybroughtSimpsonbackintooffice.OnMarch4,1885,GroverClevelandwasinauguratedaspresident,andafewmonthslaterSimpsonwasreappointedaspostmaster.[30]Soonafteritwasreportedthat “Mr.E WSimpsonisbuildinganewpostofficebetweenthewallsoftheoldpostofficeandthehouseofAlexander&Coonthewestsideofthepublicsquare.Theworkmenarenowgivingitthefinishingtouches.”[31]Thiswasasmallbuildingthatfitintothesmallvacantspacealreadyreferredto; it
was the office that would eventually be occupied by R J
Thurmond.Aweeklateritwasreportedthat “Mr.E WSimpsonhastakenchargeofthepostofficeandwilloccupythenewofficeonedoorsouthoftheoldpostofficeoronedoornorthofthehouseofAlexander&Co....Itisasmalloffice,butwereckonitcanbefound.”[32]

FouryearslaterwiththeinstallmentofanewPresident,Simpsonwasremovedfromofficeagain,andthepostmaster-shipwenttoGeorgeW.Autry,aRipleymerchantengagedinthesaleofconfectionsandbeer.[33]Autry's place ofbusinesswasapparentlyonthenorthhalfofLot8Block17,whichistosay,onthesouthsideofAlexander&Co.'sstore,andtherehepresumablylocatedthepostoffice,soitcouldberuninconjunctionwithhisbusiness.

ThisleftE WSimpson's
small postofficebuildingvacant.OnOctober10,1889,theSouthernSentinelcarried
an item which provided the final evidence for when and where R J
Thurmond established his office: “Mr.R JThurmondhasopenedanofficeintheoldpostoffice.Hehasaneat,cozy,littleoffice.”
Withthisthestagewasset:Alexander&Co.inthebrickbuildingandonitsnorthside,R JThurmondinthesmallframeofficebuilding.Twenty-fivedaysafterthenewspaperitemwaspublished,R JThurmondshotColonelFalknerinfrontofthisoffice.

Item from the
Southern Sentinel, 10 October 1889.

(click
on image to enlarge)The
west side of the square in
Ripley from the 1925 Sanborn
Insurance Map, with key
locations relevant to the
shooting.
Several buildings were still
surviving in 1925 from the
1880s, including all the
frame buildings and all
three of the buildings that
are labeled. Yellow coloring
indicates frame
construction, and red
indicates brick
construction. Note that the
R J Thurmond office has both
red and yellow coloring,
although the building was
constructed as a frame
building. However, in 1905
while the office was being
used as a barber shop, a
brick annex
was added for a bath house,
making it both a frame and
brick building. (Southern
Sentinel, 30 March
1905)

It
appears that Thurmond's use of the office building was short
lived. After he shot Falkner, he was imprisoned in the county
jail until he was allowed to post bail in February 1890. He was
acquitted on a charge of manslaughter in February 1891. The
circumstances behind the acquittal are unknown, because the
records of the case have disappeared. Whether or not
Thurmond used the office after the shooting is not known. If he
did, he did not use it for long because by October of 1890, it
was apparently converted into a barbershop, a function that it
would serve for years after.[34] In1903wefindthat “Mr.CWYounghaspurchasedofMr.R JThurmond,thebuildinglatelyoccupiedbyMessrs.J ANorriss&Co.[andpreviouslybyAlexander&Co.],andalsobarbershopadjoining.”[35]

Withinafewyearstheoffice/barbershopandtheframestorebuildingonitsnorthsidecameintothepossessionoftheMcAlisterfamily,whoopenedastoreinthelargerbuilding.
In1929W AMcAlisterhadthetwodemolishedandreplacedwiththe
brick buildingthatiscurrentlystanding.
It wasdividedintotwounits,anarrowoneonthesouthsidethatwasusuallyusedasabarbershop,muchastheframeofficethatprecededithadbeenandonthenorthsideawiderunit,usuallyusedasastore.[36]The narrow unit
in the McAlister building was last used by Smith's Barber Shop
although it is now abandoned. Today this the site of R J
Thurmond's office is still identified by the painted sign for the
barber shop.

Smith's Barber Shop in the
southern portion of the McAlister building--
the site of R.J. Thurmond's office in November 1889

In the years following the
shooting R J Thurmond's association with the little office
building was for the most part forgotten because his use of it was
so short. When asked about “Thurmond's office,” most recalled only
the building used by CM Thurmond. However, during the 20th
century, there were a few who knew where the site had truly been
located. One
wasAndrewBrown,
geologist for the US geological survey, historianofTippahCounty,great-nephewbymarriageof R J Thurmond, and son ofJoseph Brown who had
written the newspaper account of the shooting.AndrewwroteinhishistoryofTippahCountythatThurmond'sofficewasatthesiteoftheMcAlisterstorebuilding.[37]

MorerecentcorroborationcomesfromRipleynativeJudgeW.H.Anderson,onetimeownerandpublisheroftheSouthernSentinelandalongtimestudentofthelifeof
Colonel Falkner. Judging by some of his comments, he
maintained a critical stance toward his subject.Duringa1971interview,apparentlyheldonthewestsideofthecourthouse,LourieAllenasked
Anderson whereColonelFalknerwaskilled.Withouthesitation
he pointedacrossthestreettoabarbershopandsaid
that itwasthere.Healmostcertainly indicated theSmithbarbershop.[38]

Pavement

Two
of the newspaper accounts of the shooting allude to its
occurring on “thepavement.”
R FFord
described Falkneras “standingonthepavementinfrontofornearAlexander&Co.'sstore
[emphasis added].”[39]TheMemphisAppealdescribedFalkner'sheadasbeing“frightfullybruisedfromthefallonthepavement” andafterwardhewas “sittingonthepavement.”[40]TodaytheRipleysquare,like
most modern urbanspaces,isalmosttotallypavedineitherconcreteorasphalt.However,duringthe19thcenturypavementwasararethingwhenstreetswerenotevensurfacedwithgravel,andsidewalks,iftherewereany,wereusuallyconstructedofplanks.

However,duringthelate1880seffortsweremadetoprovidebricksidewalksconnectingthestoresaroundthesquaresothatcustomerscouldgetaboutwithrelativeease.
Initially thiswasnotacorporateeffortbutusuallyconductedbyindividualmerchantsprovidingpavementinfrontoftheirrespectivestores.Ifenoughcontributed
sections of pavements,
the
result would be acontinuouspavement.On23May1889,theSouthernSentinelreportedthat “Mr.G MBostwickhasputingoodconditionthewalkinfrontofhisbusinesshouse.Mr.PhyferandJudgeWorsham,saytheywillrepairtheirpavementssoon.WhenthisisdoneMainStreetwillhaveasolidbrickwalkfromoneendtotheother.”
Inotherwords,byMay1889practicallyallofthewestsideofMainStreet
on the square including in front of the Alexander&Co. store andThurmond'sofficehadbeenpaved
with brick. This
corroborates the accounts
that refer to Falkner's
being on the pavement and thereby close to the front of
Thurmond's office.

Conclusion

The newspaper accounts of the shooting of Colonel Falkner appear
to be reliable. The two places mentioned—R J Thurmond's office and
Alexander & Co.'s store—by virtue of being adjacent to one
another effectively corroborate one another in placing the crime
outside of Thurmond's office on the brick sidewalk. The building
used by Alexander & Co. still survives, although greatly
modified, especially the facade. Thurmond's office, of frame
construction, was torn down in 1929 and replaced with the present
brick structure, part of the McAlister building that in recent
years housed the Smith barber shop.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank those who without fail
were always happy to provide assistance: Tommy Covington, Melissa
McCoy-Bell, Melinda Marsalis, Bruce Smith, and the staffs of the
Ripley Public Library, the Southern Sentinel, and the
Tippah County Chancery Clerk's Office.

End notes:

1. Renfrow's Cafe was a brick buildingthat was constructedin1937andburned
on 12 October 2011. In legal terms, it stood on the north
half of Lot 1 of Block 17 in the plat of Ripley.

2. The small frame building was constructed in
late 1881-early 1882 and served as CM Thurmond'slaw office until his
death in 1900. For the construction of the law office see the
following:

3. After CM Thurmond's death at the age of 41 in 1900,
the office was used variously as a law office, dental office, and
barber shop until it was demolished in 1937 to make way for the
construction of the Renfrow's Cafe building.Because of CM
Thurmond's almost two decades of use of the building, the Thurmond
name remained associated with it for decades after his death, being
known variously as “the Thurmond office” and “the Thurmond House.”
The following passages document the use of the office following his
death. Also notice the retention of the Thurmond name:

Southern
Sentinel,17 June 1909: “Dr. JD
Burns has bought the 'Thurmond office' now occupied by JE Bryan,
barber, on northwest corner square. He will move into it in a
few weeks and expects to put it in first-class condition for an
up-to-date dental parlor.”

Southern
Sentinel, 28
April 1921: Weekly advertisement, “J.D. Burns, Dentist/Office in
Thurmond House/North West Corner square.” The same ad was still
running in the Sentinel as late as 12 Aug 1926.

Southern
Sentinel, 6
April 1933: “The City Barber Shop...has moved...to the building
formerly occupied by Dr. JD Burns on the northwest cor[ner of
the square.]”

Southern
Sentinel, 10
June 1937:“Pleas
Renfrow expects to begin the construction of a building on the
Street lot at an early date….”Oscar F. Street purchased the Thurmond office, north
½ Lot 1, Block 17, on 19 Sept 1929. Tippah County Deed
Book 36/172.

Southern
Sentinel, 22
July 1937: “Renfrow's Cafe, which is owned and operated by Mr.
and Mrs. Pleas Renfrow, is being moved into a new brick building
on the northwest corner of the square, on the west side of main
street. They have recently constructed a building on the lot
there which they leased from OF Street.”

5. RipleyAdvertiser,6November1889,quotedin
Donald Philip Duclos, Son of Sorrow: The Life, Works
and Influence of Colonel William C. Falkner 1825-1889, International
Scholars Publications, San Francisco, 1998, page247.
This work originally appeared as a ph.d. dissertation in 1961.

6. Born 1830
in MS,died 1906 in Ripley,buriedRipleyCemetery.

7. RipleyAdvertiser,16 May
1856: advertisement, “Drs. Moody & Laird. Office first door
North of Drs Cox & Alexander’s Drug Store”;Ripley
Advertiser, 3 Mar
1858: Item to the effect that Dr EM Alexander has sold his
interest in drug store of Cox & Alexander. “Our books will
be found with COX & FOSTER at the old Stand, who will
continue the Drug business.”

8. Bradstreetcreditreferencebook1870.

9. MercantileAgency/R
GDun&Co,creditreferencebooks,1873,1874.
BothmenweremarriedtoSperry
sisters from Virginia. Hunt was a nephew of R J Thurmond and
would later marry Lizzie Murry Burns, who was a daughter of Dr.
J Y Murry and a great-aunt of William Faulkner.

12. SouthernSentinel,25 July
1895: “Dr. E.M. Alexander was stricken with paralysis one day
last week and now lies at his residence in a helpless
condition….”

13. SouthernSentinel,19 Sept
1895. Dr. Alexander subsequently recovered as indicated by the
following: Southern
Sentinel, 15 Oct 1896:
“Our people are rejoiced that Dr. Alexander is again able to
walk over town.”; Southern
Sentinel, 23 Sept 1897: “…Dr. Alexander…is again able to
attend to business. He may be found at his old stand, with J A
Norriss & Co.”

27. See deeds that refer to Cole owning 12.5
feet on the north side of Lot 8. Tippah County Deed BooksQ/485;2/623.

28.
Simpson purchased this property, i.e. the north half of Lot 5
Block 17 on 27 Jan 1879. Tippah County Deed Book 5/241.This property is
confirmed as being the post office by an advertisement for the
firm L H Elliott & Co., then located in the Cole building,
south half Lot 5 Block 17 which indicated that they were located
“first door South of Post Office.” Southern Sentinel, 12
May 1881.

29. SouthernSentinel,9June1881:
“Mr. E F Jordan has been appointed Post Master at this place
instead of Ed. Simpson removed. We know of no cause for Ed.’s
removal except that his political opinions are not in accord
with those of the appointing power.”

30. RipleyAdvertiser,19Sept1885:
“Mr. Ed W. Simpson…was appointed postmaster at this place about
a week ago under the new administration….”

31. RipleyAdvertiser,17October1885.
At the time Simpson still owned the store building referred to
as the old post office. Because this building was probably more
space than he needed for a post office, his intention was
probably to build a smaller structure that could accommodate the
new post office while leaving the larger structure free for
rental purposes.

36. SouthernSentinel,11 July
1929: “WA McAlister…for many years engaged in grocery business
on west side of the square, has moved his stock of goods to the
building just north of the Marsh clinic, and the old building
which has been in service in Ripley for many, many years, is now
being demolished to make a place for a new brick building. The
new building will be 100 ft long by about 33 ft. wide and will
be two stores. One will be occupied by Mr. McAlister while the
other will be rented out. The McAlister building is the last of
the old frame buildings on the west side except the office of
Dr. JD Burns [former office of CM Thurmond] on northwest
corner.”

Southern
Sentinel,
19 Sept 1929: “Mr. WA McAlister…has moved into his
new building on the west side of the square, on the site of the
frame building he had occupied for a number of
years…double-brick building.”

Southern
Sentinel, 26
Sept 1929: “The Nu Way Shoe Store…will open its doors Saturday
of this week….will be located in the McAlister building…. The
beautiful new brick stands on the site of the old WA McAlister
grocery and the Bill White barbershop. Mr. McAlister is
occupying the northern division of the double building….”

Buildings on the west side of Ripley's
Public Square on 5 November 1889.

Commercial
buildings on the west side of the square, 2011

The following is a list of the nine buildings
that fronted on the west side of the public square, that is on the
east side of Block 17, on Tuesday November 5, 1889, the day that
Colonel Falkner was shot. Of the nine, seven were relatively large
“store buildings,” six frame and one brick, and two were
relatively small frame “offices.” All nine are listed sequentially
from north to south in the list below. Occupancy and land title
were reconstructed from deed records and newspapers. I have also
identified the site of each 1889 building with what is currently
located there.

1. Northeast corner of the block, north 20 feet of Lot 1
Block 17. The small frame office building was used and owned by CM
Thurmond, attorney-at-law. The site is currently a vacant lot.

2. Southern portion of Lot 1, Block 17. Two story frame store
building. Lower story used by Murry & Son Drug Store, which was
operated by Dr. John Y. Murry, Sr., and his son, Dr. CM Murry, Sr.
The lot and the ground floor were owned by Dr. J Y Murry. The upper
story was owned and used by the Ripley Masonic Lodge. The site is
currently occupied by a two-story brick building that is not
currently in use.

3. North half Lot 4, Block 17. Frame store building used by Jacob
Sorger as a grocery store, while Lee Alvis had a butcher shop in
the rear room, property owned by MS Phyfer. The site is currently
occupied by a two-story brick building that is used by the Ripley
Cable Company.

4. South half Lot 4, Block 17. Frame
store building, user unknown, owned by J W T Falkner. The site is
currently occupied a two-story brick building that is used by the
Inn-on-the-Square.

5. North side Lot 5, Block 17. Frame store
building, user unknown, property owned by E W Simpson. Presently
occupied by the northern portion of the McAlister building and
used by the House of Freedom (church).

6. Center of Lot 5, Block 17. Small frame
office building used by R J Thurmond. The building seems to have
straddled the boundary between R J Thurmond on the south side and
E W Simpson on the north side. If this is the case then the
building was jointly owned by Thurmond and Simpson.Presently occupied by
the southern portion of the McAlister building, it is now
unoccupied but was last used by Smith's Barber Shop.

7. South side Lot 5, and about two feet off
north edge Lot 8, Block 17. Brick store building, used by
Alexander & Co., owned by R J Thurmond. This is the only
commercial building on the square today that was extant in 1889.
Presently occupied by Creative Awning and Sign.

8. North side Lot 8, Block 17. Frame store
building used by George W. Autry, confectionery and grocery, owned
by MS Phyfer and FM Johnson. The site is currently occupied by a
one-story brick building that is used by the James W. Pannell Law
Office.

9. South half Lot 8, Block 17. Frame store
building used by the N G Carter Drug Store. Dr. Nathaniel Green
Carter married Colonel Falkner's daughter, Willie Medora Falkner.
Property owned by WC Falkner. The site is currently occupied by a
two-story brick building that originally served as the First
National Bank building, and later as the People's Bank, and is
currently used by Professional Land Services.